Dec 1, 2010 19:25 GMT  ·  By

SoundCloud, the music sharing platform for aspiring and well-known musicians alike is introducing a couple of new things that could greatly influence the future of the site, for better or for worse. There is now the possibility to directly record audio files from the site or from the brand-new iPhone app.

"Imagine you’re in the subway and all of a sudden a group of strangers starts singing - what’s known as a flashmob is happening right in front of your eyes (and ears)," a post on the site's blog explains.

"Or imagine you’re on tour with your band and have a super-funny story or acoustic demo of a brand-new song to share with your followers and fans," it adds.

"Today, we’re excited about the release of the recording feature. The Record button will make it easy for you to capture all kinds of sounds right on SoundCloud & with the iPhone app and share them from anywhere to everywhere on the web: your website, social network profiles or simply between friends & family," SoundCloud announced.

The feature is rather straight-forward, instead of hitting the upload button, just press Rec. A Flash-based recorder will be loaded, similar to the SoundCloud player and, provided that your microphone is set up properly, you're good to go.

After you're done recording, you can select a photo to serve as a cover, fill in some details about the sound clip and you're ready to share it.

The SoundCloud iPhone app, which was also launched today, simply brings all of the features you're used to from the site, including the new recording functionality, in a package suited for the mobile device.

You can check out tracks from the people you follow, your profile and so on. The real stand out feature is, of course, the recording which should come in real handy on the go.

Of course, it remains to be seen if this will widen SoundCloud's appeal beyond music enthusiasts or how will the existing community will receive the new functionality.